Lamenting the loss of my local hobbyshop

What is wrong is that we are losing the sources for things to aid in scratch building and detailing things. Few internet retailers have those items.

But I do recall someone saying in any one market all it takes is 10 scratch builders to run a store out of business.

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Good point Bill. It's hard to fine most of the scratch building materials on line and when you do it's often priced higher than it would be in a shop and then there is shipping cost. I guess I am lucky in that my Local Hobby Shop carries a full line of Evergreen, Plastruct, K&S, etc. and I do buy it all from them.

We have an amazing hobby shop in Fort Myers, FL. They even have a nice assortment of Silflor, something most shops never even heard of!

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Scenery and scratch building materials are real enhancement for hobbiests with LHS nearby. My LHS expanded their warehouse about 15 years ago just to add a room dedicated to scenery, paint and assorted types of scratch building materials. I was a bit surprised by that choice... but it makes perfect sense since these items are not 'scale' specific... in fact not even model railroad specific in most cases.

BTW... this LHS has been in North Miami for 25+ years. It is very well stocked for N, HO, O & G (no Z scale). The owner is an avid O scaler and has a large O layout in the store... as well as a small N and HO layouts.

BTW... this LHS has been in North Miami for 25+ years. It is very well stocked for N, HO, O & G (no Z scale). The owner is an avid O scaler and has a large O layout in the store... as well as a small N and HO layouts.

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This person sounds like someone who is not just dedicated but understands how it needs to be done. Too many who own "hobby shops" do not comprehend their business- which is an aspect many out here fail to consider. The word is "acumen".

I agree, the world has change, yesterday is gone but is it for the better?

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I could not say it is better. But it has irrevocably changed.

What people keep writing in these topics is like challenging someone to a duel to the death, using wet noodles at fifty paces- you are not going to ever reach any satisfactory (we are just wasting our time) conclusion. It is nice to be able to vent frustrations, but in the end, we gain absolutely nothing.

Plywood is best for benchwork now, good stuff too, Baltic Birch. Lumber at the big box us all raw, wet junk. You can get good wood, but you’ll have to go to a specialty store, and it’s gonna cost you...

It isn't just the hobby shops, but finding wood for benchwork that is not all warped is getting harder to find as well......

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I clicked "Like", but would rather have an option for either Sad or Mad. What you wrote is so true. That joke which passes as lumber, as pawned off upon us today, is not much better than junk firewood.

Plywood is best for benchwork now, good stuff too, Baltic Birch. Lumber at the big box us all raw, wet junk. You can get good wood, but you’ll have to go to a specialty store, and it’s gonna cost you...

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What passes as "lumber" today would be laughed at, hysterically, by my grandfather. It is almost to the point of being disgraceful. Or maybe it is past that already....

What passes as "lumber" today would be laughed at, hysterically, by my grandfather. It is almost to the point of being disgraceful. Or maybe it is past that already....

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That's why I use two or three layers of foam board. It's guaranteed flat, Liquid Nails (for Foam) sticks to it, Sculptamold sticks to it, paint sticks to it, you can push rail nails into it with no effort, and you can carve rivers and ponds with a box cutter or similar. Though you have to remember to peel off the plastic coating or nothing will stick to it for very long. Oh yeh, and it's free if your neighbor remodels his house as mine did.

My old, original hobby shop closed/moved years and years ago. It was in the same place from the nineteen fifties until the late seventies when the building owner would not renew the lease on Max Nichol's shop. I never found out why the lease wasn't renewed.

Anyway, a deal was worked out for his shop to move to a vacant store on Main street but Max almost had a nervous breakdown in the process. He operated the shop for a few more years but then retired. He passed away not long after. Very sad.

It was my favorite place to go in town and where I first saw Atlas N scale in 1967. I could hardly contain myself. If I had had the money, I would have bought him out of all of it.

… It was my favorite place to go in town and where I first saw Atlas N scale in 1967 …. Doug

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Good memories Doug. Like many of y'all, I too bicycled into town were we had a sporting goods store that sold Athearn HO and Atlas N trains. I think I wore out their revolving display, savoring everything seen. And across the street was a drug store/soda fountain/magazine stand where I bought my first model train magazine, RMC. Quite the investment at $0.50. I still have that issue.

One of the regional favorites - Craft World in downtown Jamestown, NY relocated outside of town, then closed this last summer. The father came back out of retirement and just reopened "Terry's Train Shop and Hobbies" on Foote Ave. on the south side of town, not far from where they had relocated. He's limited the hobby business to about 75% trains instead of the 15% trains of the prior Craft World store.

It's nice to report it's a 'real hobby shop' and worth of even N scalers to stop by, he also has the tools, parts, scratchbuilding materials, and scenery common to all gauges. I can't remember the last time I could post anything like this, so be it known. He doesn't have a web page, but he is on Facebook, and I'm giving him all the business I can here.

Wish I still lived a mere 2 hours from Jamestown! I've never lived anywhere that had a decent hobby shop, at least none I ever located. Now that I live in Europe, hobby shops are mostly pointless for my modeling, as they naturally have only European trains. Always been an internet sourced hobby for me.

If you were a teenager 50 years ago the likelyhood is that there was a general hobby store relatively close. Model trains could be found in those stores... but actually you could find them at any large retailer as well. Toy stores like Toy-r-us, Lionel Playworld and others would have a year around stock of model trains. As time went on... say 40 years ago... things started to change. Much less model trains in large retailers (Sears, Pennys, Kmart etc...) except around the Christmas holidays. Local hobby shops became the only real reliable place to find model trains year around. Mail order was another source of acquiring 'discounted, overstocked or unpopular model trains'. The 1990's and internet marketing of model trains began to erode business for LHS' that did not adapt and join the etailing environment. Less walk in clients to LHS' eventually cut into there profitability and led to many shops to close. Mega etailers like Walthers, Horizon and other distributors further killed off small shops. It is a tribute to long standing LHS' which are still fighting on... usually only because the owners care about the hobby moreso than profits.

I will also second your impressions on Railroad Hobbies. They did not seem to like me bringing my daughter into the store with me. Need to check out Western Depot. Need to find a good DCC supplier locally in Sacramento/Roseville area....

There are more reasons why brick and mortar hobby shops close their doors then we've covered here. No, that doesn't mean you left anything out. Many reasons are unseen and unexplained. I don't have time to go into it right now. Headed out the door to a Dentist appointment. Might get into this later today.

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